Big Ant On Passionvine

It’s some type of Ant (obviously), but I’m not sure what kind.  He was just sitting on one of the Passionvine stems, like waiting to ambush something that would happen to come by.

Notice the little hairs on it’s head?

When I was letting the dogs out I noticed one of the baby Purple Martins on the pool decking just sitting there.  When I scooped him up, it was pretty clear something was wrong.

I called Leecy to come out and help me.  She tried to feed him some crushed, moist fruit, which it did eat, but the bird was really weak.

Leecy Feeding Purple Martin

If you look at the bird’s eye in the picture above, it appears it had some type of disease; we suspect Avian Pox.

I remember seeing this bird in the Martin House the other day.  I remember its eye look closed, but I just attributed it to the heat of the day.

In the two remaining pictures, you can see pretty clearly this bird was sick.

Left Side Of Purple Martin With Avian Pox

Right Side Of Purple Martin With Avian Pox

Although Leecy tried her best to rehydrate the bird and give it some food, in the end, the bird didn’t make it.

Leecy said a little prayer for the bird on his journey to the heavens.

Unfortunately, this wasn’t the only death today of the Purple Martin babies.

Because this baby likely had avian pox, I wanted to check on the remaining 3 birds.

I opened the one nest, and that bird looked fine and healthy.  I open the next door, and one baby was dead.  The other baby in the same room appeared to be okay.  So of the original 4, two of them passed away today.

On the bright side, this has been the most successful breeding season for the Purple Martins that visit us.  Of the 14 babies that we counted, all survived but 2 so far.  All but the remaining 2 have flying happily for a few weeks now.

They are starting to peek outside of their nest, and it looks like one of them actually moved down to another nest area.

There are a total of 4 babies, although only 3 of them can be seen in this shot.  The one in the middle looks a bit smaller than the other two.

Purple Martin Mother Feeding Three Babies

Gulf Fritillary On Coneflower And Bee Flying

Here’s another shot with the Gulf Fritillary on a Marigold.

Gulf Fritillary On Marigold

This last shot I really like as well.  We have lots of Purple Coneflower right now, all growing because Leecy saved the seeds from last year.

I like how the eye is drawn to the foreground Coneflower and Butterfly, but it appears as a nice pleasing background with all the other Coneflowers slightly blurred.

Gulf Fritillary On Field Of Purple Coneflowers

This particular Spicebush appeared to be younger than the one I saw last week who had the tattered wings.  It was really enjoying getting nectar from the Penta.

Spicebush Feeding On Penta

The shot below was done using a different technique than I normally use, but I like the result.  I like how I was able to blur the foreground Penta and focus on the Butterfly and Penta towards the back.

Spicebush Feeding On Multiple Pentas

It was hopping all around the Purple Coneflowers getting nectar.  This is not an easy Butterfly to get pictures of, especially with their wings open!

Pearl Crescent Wings Open

Here’s a picture with the wings closed.  It was resting on the Spicebush plant.

Pearl Crescent Wings Closed

For some reason, this large Spicebush Caterpillar was feeding on the Spicebush in the middle of the afternoon.  It was really chewing on the leaves.  Once the female Spicebush Butterfly came around, it quickly crawled back inside the protection of a leaf.

On another but similar note, I have yet to find any Spicebush Chrysalises, although we had several large Caterpillars a couple of weeks ago.

Spicebush Swallowtail Caterpillar Feeding

When she finally quit flying around and “pretending” she was laying eggs, she stopped to rest on the Spicebush plant.  It was then that I saw she was pretty old, based on how faded her wings were, and the missing parts of her wing.

Old Female Spicebush Swallowtail Resting

Other than some very loud Frogs croaking at night attracting mates, you also get a Broad Banded Water Snake.

At least that’s what I discovered today while I was cleaning the Pond.

Fortunately I still have my Snake tongs from last year.  I stayed pretty calm, went inside to grab the Snake tongs, called Leecy, and back to the Pond I went.

This guy is much smaller than the Broad Banded Water Snake I found in the Pond last year.  It was also much calmer than the one last year.  The one I caught last year wanted to bite me every chance it got.

Not so for this little one.

Broad Banded Water Snake Face Shot

I can’t say I’m really surprised this Snake showed up after last night with all those Frogs croaking.

The Broad Banded Water Snake (also known as the Southern Water Snake) eat Frogs, Crayfish, Fish, and Salamanders.  They grow to about 20-30 inches.  This one was about 20-25 inches.

It also doesn’t surprise me they are drawn to my Pond.  Other than the Crayfish, I have the perfect habitat for them.

Young Broad Banded Water Snake

After taking a few pictures, I released him behind my house in the woods.  I then put some “Snake Away” by the fence.  I have no idea if that stuff works or not, but it makes me feel better.

Here’s some shots of the Snake scenting the air while I was taking pictures.

Broad Banded Water Snake Scenting Air

Broad Banded Water Snake Lifting Tongue

While I was vacuuming the leaves, I accidentally sucked up this little green thing.  It turned out to be that baby Red Eared Slider that I found a few weeks ago.

He/she doesn’t seem to have grown much.

This first shot is from Leecy’s camera phone.

Closeup Of Baby Turtle From Pond

Baby Red Eared Slider Turtle From Pond